From the collection of the Old State House Museum |
James "Jim" Guy Tucker was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on June 14, 1943. His family had long-standing political ties to Arkansas, where his grandfather had served as Secretary of State. Soon after Tucker's birth, his family moved to Little Rock where he attended public school.
Tucker graduated from Harvard University in 1964. An officer in the Marine Corps Reserves, he served as a civilian correspondent in Vietnam in 1965 and again in 1967. His experiences there would provide material for his book Arkansans at War, published in 1968. During this period Tucker also attended University of Arkansas Law School. He graduated in 1968 and was admitted to the Arkansas Bar that same year.
From 1968 to 1970 Tucker was a member of Little Rock's prestigious Rose Law Firm. In 1970 he became the prosecuting attorney for the Sixth Judicial District. In 1972 and again in 1974 he was elected Arkansas Attorney General. Jim Guy married Betty Allen on November 8, 1975. They would have four children. Tucker won election to the U. S. Congress from the Second District in 1976. In 1978 he ran unsuccessfully against David Pryor for the Senate seat vacated by John McClellan.
After his defeat Tucker devoted himself to the practice of corporate law for the remainder of the decade. In 1990 he came out of political retirement to win the office of Lieutenant Governor, just recently expanded to a four-year term. Under normal circumstances this would have been a largely insignificant position. Because Governor Bill Clinton was widely expected to run for president, however, the lieutenant-governorship made Tucker his heir apparent.
Starting in 1991 and throughout 1992, Tucker served as acting governor while Clinton campaigned for the White House, formally assuming the office when Clinton was elected president. While Tucker was in Washington attending the inauguration, acting governor Jerry Jewell seized the opportunity to pardon two convicts and extend executive clemency to three others. This resulted in new laws limiting the powers of acting governors.
Tucker set out to put his stamp on the governorship by being tough on crime. He championed mandatory minimum sentences, tougher parole standards, and additional prisons. In 1994 he called a special session of the legislature to overhaul the juvenile justice system. That same year he was elected governor in his own right, defeating Sheffield Nelson, the Republican candidate, with nearly 60% of the vote. Republican Mike Huckabee was elected Lieutenant Governor.
Things began to go bad for Tucker in 1995. An initiative on his part to improve the state’s roads went down to a resounding defeat. This was followed by his indictment, along with Jim and Susan McDougal, as part of the expanding Whitewater investigation surrounding President Clinton. Tucker’s July 1996 conviction surprised many and prompted a constitutional crisis.
Arkansas law prohibited a convicted felon from serving as governor. Tucker resigned from office, only to rescind his resignation on the day Mike Huckabee was to be sworn in as his replacement. This caused such uproar, even among Democrats, Tucker stepped down again only hours later.
Though he paid a large fine, Tucker would spend little actual time in prison because of his deteriorating health. His liver was failing and he suffered from intestinal bleeding. In 1997 he received a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic.
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